Health and Safety
Executive / Commission
Nuclear
LLC reports
This report is issued as part of the Health and Safety Executive's commitment to make information about inspection and regulatory activities relating to the above sites available to the public. It is for distribution to members of the AWE Local Liaison Committee (LLC) and covers activities associated with the regulation of safety at Aldermaston and Burghfield.
Site Inspectors of HM Nuclear Installations Inspectorate attend LLC meetings and will be happy to respond to any questions raised there by members. Any other person wishing to enquire about matters covered by this report may contact HSE's Nuclear Directorate Information Centre on 0151-951-4103.
A total of 14 different NII inspectors visited the Aldermaston and Burghfield sites during the quarter. Inspections were made on the following days:
Aldermaston
1-2 October
8-9 October
14-16 October
3-6 November
20-21 November
1-5 December
9-10 December
15-17 December
Burghfield
1 October
3-4 November
3-4 December
2. Inspections are undertaken for the purpose of monitoring compliance with (i) the conditions attached by HSE to the nuclear site licences, and (ii) other relevant provisions of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974, including the Ionising Radiations Regulations 1999. In this period routine inspections included:
a. Provision and assessment of safety cases and compliance with
arrangements made under licence conditions.
b. Management of facility operations and maintenance.
c. Proposals for new plants.
d. Emergency arrangements.
e. Decommissioning of redundant facilities.
f. Waste management.
g. Operating rules, operating instructions, and operational
records.
h. Safety mechanisms, devices, and circuits.
i. Arrangements for the control of modifications to existing
plants.
j. Arrangements for the notification, recording, investigation, and
reporting of incidents on the sites.
3. Issues arising from these and previous inspections are being pursued. Inspections were made also by HSE's factory inspectors and explosives inspectors.
4. Twelve-month report1 : NII issued a public report in 2001, after inspecting to form an opinion on the first-year safety performance of the new licensee (AWE plc). During this quarter the last of the actions placed by the report were formally closed out, thus concluding a major piece of work.
5. Human Factors: For some time NII has pressed the licensee to employ its own specialist in Human Factors, reducing its reliance on contractors for this important expertise. NII therefore welcomed AWE plc's recruitment of a specialist, and held discussions with the licensee on his role.
6. Assurance conference: An inspector attended the company's Assurance Conference held on 14 October.
7. Stakeholder survey: NII distributed questionnaires to members of the Local Liaison Committee and the licensee's directors, senior managers, and safety representatives, asking what they as our stakeholders expect of us.
8. New production plant: A team of NII's specialist inspectors took part in discussions with the licensee on some options studies, which the licensee is undertaking to help chose the processes to be incorporated in a new plant to replace some current production plants.
9. Drilling rig accident: One of HSE's construction inspectors investigated an incident in which a contractor's hand was seriously injured by a drilling rig taking a borehole sample on the site. The inspector subsequently made recommendations to the drilling company, the manufacturers of the rig, and AWE plc.
10. NuSAC visit: In October the Aldermaston site was the venue for a meeting of the Health and Safety Commission's Nuclear Safety Advisory Committee. Members then visited some plants to observe decommissioning, high-performance computing, and the laser facility.
11. No non-routine matters to report this quarter.
. NII Report: Relicensing of the Atomic Weapons Establishment Sites to AWE plc - Report on the performance of AWE plc as a licensee twelve months after the relicensing of Aldermaston and Burghfield on 1 April 2000.
12. As part of its regulation under the nuclear site licences NII issues formal regulatory documents, which include Consents, Approvals, Directions, and Licence Instruments 2. In Licence Instrument No 24 NII agreed to the construction at Aldermaston of the New Waste Treatment Plant. This plant will treat low-active liquid effluents, and so take the place of the discharge route through the Pangbourne pipeline.
13. In Licence Instrument No 25 NII specified that by the end of 2006 the licensee must have characterised the contents of 4500 of its current stock of drums of solid intermediate-level waste. This specification superseded and updated a similar specification (No 41) issued under the previous licence.
14. No other issues have arisen that have required formal regulatory action.
2 Licence Instruments are issued to acknowledge receipt of specified documents, eg proposals for a new or modified plant; to stipulate whether the Inspectorate intends to examine these documents, or to agree to the start of a particular phase of construction, commissioning, modification, or decommissioning.
Published on the HSE web site 14 April 2004